You ever find yourself thinking about the mental strength that would be required to actually be a superhero? The strength of mind needed to slip into a spandex onesie and fight crime night after night? Hell, how do you even begin to cope when your life has been turned upside down by what seems to be an annual invasion into your reality by cosmic extinction events from beyond the stars and our ability to even conceive of those horrors?

Humanity isn’t alone. In a universe of a trillion stars and even more planets, life always finds a way. Not a question of “if” but rather “when”, first contact will eventually be made between our species and visitors from another world. And when it happens, they’re going to have one hell of a deal to offer us as the galaxy expands in ways we never thought possible.

True romance never dies, as Gothic Tales of Haunted Love proves. It’s a revival, a tribute and a sequel to an age of underappreciated comic books. 200-plus pages of love being true, bitter and horrific.

Imagine for a second, that there was no break from reality with the WWE. Imagine if the professional sports entertainment outfit was just as real backstage as it was on TV. Think for a second just how crazy it would be to live in a universe where you’re constantly being filmed, watching matches backstage at an awkward angle and your skull has a permanent resting place for a steel chair. That’s a story worth telling, something which Boom! Studios ably does in a Royal Rumble primer.

While Tony Stark was adamant that the US Government should keep their dirty hands off of his Iron Man suits, the same can’t be said for the latest version from Hot Toys. While it’s not the first time that the Hong Kong developer has crafted a Mark IV Iron Man figure, it is the first time that the studio is rendering this particular incarnation of ol’ shellhead in diecast metals.

Haunting yet hopeful, there’s a youthful energy in Secret Weapons #0 that’s hard to beat as Valiant Entertainment's new series asks its readers if they'd be willing to die for a chance to be special.

While choosing any one comic book and claiming it to be the best of the best is more impossible than accurately pronouncing Mr. Myxyzpytlyk’s name backwards on the first try, finding plenty of recommended reading certainly wasn’t. Here’s a look at twenty of the very best comics that 2017 had to offer.

This year has seen the relaunch of Valiant Entertainment's foremost hero, X-O Manowar, and what a relaunch it has been! In short: The King is back!

Don’t look for cheesecake supernatural in the new Witchblade comic. The first issue establishes the rebooted series as a moody empowerment fantasy.

Lord Drakkon is staging a counterattack across all of Ranger time and space in 2018’s Shattered Grid event that ties into the 25th anniversary celebration of the franchise. Clearly, it's going to take more than just five teenagers with attitude to stop him. It's going to take 25 years of Power Rangers to halt the greatest threat facing the morphin grid.

Having escaped a cosmic jailhouse, Klaus is back this year as he faces his greatest threat yet: The 1980s. Greed is good, Santa is an intellectual property waiting to be exploited and army of Saint Nick footsoldiers are ready to pounce on the masses and steal their children.

I cannot emphasis enough just how important a good comic book cover is. It’s the first thing you see on a shelf, a splash page of colours and action. Not only does a comic book cover need to draw your gaze, it needs to reinforce the character it’s supporting and clue you in on the action inside of it. Not an easy task in this day and age of goldfish memories. DC’s newest comics though? They’re looking damn fine